Friends of Old
by xMisterPadfootx
Summary: Well, this is based on the Marauders. Sirius is dubbed a werewolf by the school and Remus is trying to get him out of trouble yet remain unsuspicious. Peter is out trying out new things, like love. James is just Jameseh...x.x
1. ¤Werewolf and Company¤

Friends of Old  
By: Angelina Badali  
  
+Chapter One+  
-Werewolf and Company-  
  
A young man, around seventeen or so, looked out the boarded up windows into the rainy sky. He looked tired, his eyes were sagging with lack of sleep and every so often a yawn escaped his mouth. He brushed his curly light brown hair from his face and looked away from the window, his eyes scanning the torn apart house before him. This young man's name was Remus Lupin, and his name said a lot about him. He had been bitten by a werewolf a while back and now at every full moon, he turned into a horrible wolf-like monster, hence the name Lupin. Anyway, Remus was currently attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was in his fifth year out of the normal seven. The kind headmaster there, Albus Dumbledore, made certain that even temporarily dangerous students like this boy, could still have a good education. For this case, Dumbledore had planted a Whomping Willow and under it was a secret passage to the quaint little town of Hogsmeade where a house stood alone on the top of the hill and was claimed haunted. Every evening, when a full moon was to take place, Remus had been smuggled out and sent alone into the passage, where he could transform without any harm or scare to any of the other students until the full moon passed and he was just a normal kid again. In being just a normal kid, he had made friends.some very good friends in fact. When they figured out that he was a werewolf they studied up on a spell that would make you able to turn into animals. No one was ever supposed to know about this or how his friends had done such a dangerous thing to become an Animagus. Well, as you have probably figured out, he was sitting in his lonely house just waiting for a trickle of moonlight to seep through the clouds and find him through the cracks in the boards on the windows. He blinked as he saw the furniture that he had shredded in his terrible form and the scars he had given himself for having no humans to bite at. Yes, he knew that he was a dangerous creature and sometimes it worried him that if his friends didn't change fast enough into their animal forms, that he would hurt them, or perhaps worse. He seemed to perk up as he heard the opening from the passage to the house creak open. He pushed himself from his perch at the window and walked toward the door, looking all over for the source of the door opening. "Hullo? Prongs? Padfoot? Wormtail?" He said quietly, his dark brown eyes scanning the darkness. "Hello Moony," said a noticeably puberty-plagued voice from the passage. Remus smiled as he recalled his nickname (of course from being a werewolf) and his friend Peter's sadly still changing voice. "Hullo Peter," He said happily, glad that his friend had remembered to come. He helped pull the slightly overweight boy from the passage, and then helped dust off his bright blonde hair. Peter was a short boy for his age, definitely smaller than the tall, lean Remus and his other friends. To go with the short, mousy brown hair he had sparkling blue eyes that always seemed to dazzle with curiosity. His animal form was a mousy-brown rat with beetle black eyes that kept the same curiosity as when he was human. Thus, the nickname Wormtail that the group had so kindly bestowed upon him for the wormlike tail that went along with his rat form became permanent and part of their everyday speech.  
"Where are James and Sirius?" Remus asked, knowing full well that Peter was a bit skittish without them being there as well. James and Sirius were his other friends that were Animagi and they became rather large animals, which did seem to comfort Wormtail a bit.  
Peter snorted and said almost admiringly, "They are chasing around girls.they said they were going to be coming along soon. I sure hope so," He added quietly, a shiver running up his spine.  
Remus looked at him sympathetically, silently wishing that they would come soon too because they were his entertainment for the evening. He patted Wormtail on the back and said with a bit of a laugh, "I wish you'd trust me more, Wormtail."  
"I do trust you.you're just a bit scary when you're a humongous man- eating wolf." He said worriedly, wringing his hands.  
Remus rolled his eyes subtly and went back to his perch on the window with Peter waddling behind him. They sat down and Remus went back to looking out the window, knowing that until James and Sirius came along he'd be bored out of his mind.  
************  
  
"You know Evans," James said, peering over his round black glasses at a pretty young lady with flaming red hair, "You're so cute when you're angry."  
He ran a hand through his unruly dark brown hair making it, if possible, even messier. His dark brown eyes met the girl's bright green ones as she retorted through gritted teeth. "Angry, Potter? Is that what you said? You haven't seen angry.and my name's not Evans."  
James Potter was one of Remus's friends and was currently missing the big werewolf event down at Hogsmeade's infamous Shrieking Shack. He had had a crush on this girl for ages now and she kept telling him that he had the biggest ego and until he deflated his head she wouldn't even associate herself with him. Obviously he was ignoring this statement and his ego was as big as could be.  
"Lily Evans isn't it," James said, circling her like a vulture eyeing a lion's fresh kill, "Or did I miss something over these past five years. You answer to it quite nicely."  
She raised a pale hand as if to smack him across the face but thought better of it and patted him on the shoulder instead. "You should know, after the past five years of stalking me.and besides, I don't date vultures." She spat with mock sweetness as she pushed past him and exited the Great Hall, where the meals and assemblies took place.  
He stood there looking crest-fallen for a second then looked back at a handsome boy sitting casually behind him. "Where did I go wrong, Sirius?" He asked sadly, his lower lip quivering mockingly.  
The boy called Sirius chuckled and smiled sympathetically, "I think it's the part when you said 'hello, you're a cute one aren't ya' dating back to our second year." He laughed a bit then patted him on the back, "Sorry mate."  
As I stated before, Sirius Black was a very handsome young man. He had dark brown eyes and shiny black hair that flipped out over his face making him look like he had an everlasting attitude, which he did. He seemed to have admirers of the opposite gender everywhere he went and he had an ego size that could challenge James's. They were both top ranking in looks and popularity and if you were seen around them the popularity would rub off on you for a while. Sirius had a bit of a dating problem as well, except instead of being hooked on the same girl getting no's every time, he flirted with about every good-looking girl in the year so, along with being popular he had the black mark on his record of being a player which possibly made him even more desirable.  
James stuck his tongue out at his best friend foolishly then his eyes widened and he smirked. "Guess what we're missing," he said slyly, shoving Sirius in the ribs.  
"To the tree!" Sirius said just as foolishly as James, pointing out the main exit. "Onward ho!" He yelled, pushing open the huge wooden door saying in James's ear as he walked past, awfully cruelly, "Lady's first."  
James sneered and walked through the door, kicking up his leg girlishly as he went, fluttering his eyes at Sirius "Thank you sweetums," He said in a high pitched voice, pinching Sirius's cheek.  
Sirius chuckled and pushed his friend along. "Come on now, let's go." He said, running down toward the tree. He stopped abruptly as he came almost in reaching distance of the willows huge, wildly flailing branches and looked back at James who was coming along behind him. "Wormtail isn't with us.how are we going to get in?" Sirius said, dodging a branch. Usually, when they went there, they had Peter who could become such a small animal that he could scamper past the flying branches to the knot that freezes the dangerous tree.  
James looked wide-eyed up at the tree and his face fell. "I don't know.want to get a stick?" He shuddered and looked over at his friend who was staring at him looking like, 'yeah right.you want one so bad go get it yourself.' James muttered something and smiled at his friend who was now smiling back.  
"Now there's a good deer.go fetch the stick." Sirius said mockingly, turning the tables. Sirius, when he changed, turned into a huge shaggy black dog and that gained him the nickname Padfoot. James gave him a hard time about it and joked by telling him to fetch his shoes for him so now it was James's turn to fetch. James thought he was so dashing because he turned into a magnificent stag so he thought he was better than the rest. Not better but.yeah, better works.  
James snorted defiantly but walked over, carefully dodging any blows from the tree and got a long stick that had fallen off it. He brought it back to Sirius and said, "Go on, Mr. Oh-so-Brave.go get 'em." Sirius grabbed the stick and muttered something that was either a prayer or a hex on James that utterly failed then ran blindly through the tree and jabbed the knot with his stick making it freeze in place.  
James applauded enthusiastically then Sirius bowed and they both went through the passage. They knew not of whether Remus had changed or not but they decided to take a chance and stay human. As they poked their heads up the end of the passage they jumped, hearing an unnerving scream and a crash. 


	2. ¤A meeting in the Shack¤

+Chapter 2+  
-A Meeting in the Shack-  
  
In a flash the two boys in the doorway changed into animals and leaped out of the doorway, ready to save Peter from whatever Remus was supposedly subconsciously doing to him. Sirius and James sprinted through the house, looking for Peter and when they found him, he was laying on the floor beneath a.human Remus?!  
"Oh, hullo there mates!" Remus said casually to his awestricken friends who were sitting doggishly with their mouth hanging open, looking utterly stupid.  
They shook out of it quickly and turned back into their human forms but both were pale, wide-eyed and panting like mad. "We.heard Wormtail.scream." James said breathily while Sirius smoothed down his own hair which was standing up uncharacteristically on his head.  
"Oh, that.I just got bored and I started tickling him. He fell off the couch laughing and screamed as he hit the ground." Remus said, waving his hand impatiently at his tired friends.  
"Wow," Sirius said, quickly covering his worry about his friends, "You've really been dodging the moonlight tonight, haven't you Moony?"  
James and Peter laughed but Remus just chuckled, "Yeah, now that you guys are here I suppose I should."  
"No, that's not it," James interrupted, looking very full of himself. "He didn't want Wormtail to mess himself with fright."  
Whoops of laughter erupted from the three of them as Wormtail blushed and looked away ashamedly.  
"Now now, Wormtail.it's alright.you don't need to be embarrassed," Sirius said surprisingly caringly. A small smirk and a wink were passed onto Remus and James as Sirius rubbed the boy's back. "We've known about your problems for ages.but sometimes we forget because there are so many. Please forgive us."  
James and Sirius let out fresh hoots of laughter as Remus shook his head and patted Peter on the back. "Come on guys.I know we haven't seen Severus in a while but you don't need to take it out on Peter." Wormtail looked up at him gratefully and smiled a shadow of a smile.  
"Nope, the grease ball must of disintegrated into thin air.I'm starting to miss the little snake." James said thoughtfully, looking mournfully at Sirius who wailed in mockery.  
"My poor Snivelly! Where have you gone?" Sirius cried, sobbing fake tears into James's shoulder who was patting him on the back whispering 'there there' like you would to a child.  
Severus, or Snivelly as he was more commonly known around this group of teenagers, was a tall, lanky, homely boy who liked to study the Dark Arts and looked like he had never taken a shower in his lifetime. He was quiet but cruel and these boys seemed to get into a lot of trouble because of him. He was a tattletale (like most ugly boys are, Sirius thinks) and he was always the main attraction for getting made fun of and hexed by mainly James and Sirius. Another reason Lily hated James was because of this.she didn't believe it was fair to be so mean to him when he never did anything to them. She would always try to stick up for him but James would never stop.  
"I'm sorry, Wormtail," James muttered as Sirius nodded in silent agreement. They both sighed then Sirius laughed.  
"We look like a bunch of idiots, sitting on the ground in a circle like this. What are we? Five?!" Sirius jumped up and brushed himself off, smirking haughtily at the other three boys on the ground.  
They all rose slowly to their feet, brushing themselves off as they got up. Remus looked around at his friends and smiled a sheepish grin, asking, "So, are you guys ready?"  
The three boys changed into their animals as an answer of yes and Remus grinned wider. Those boys right there had put up with so much and he was grateful. He nodded slightly then noticed a spot of moonlight that had found its way in. "Okay, then here goes." He walked warily over to the moonlight, submitting himself to what he knew was going to have to be done.  
  
His eyes widened automatically as he saw and felt himself changing. Even though he had done this countless times, it never ceased to make him jump. He felt his nose grow steadily longer and his back bone curving into a un-humanlike arch. Brown hairs began to sprout all over his body and within seconds he was sitting doggishly on the ground, in front of his stunned audience.  
Wormtail shuddered involuntarily and Padfoot smiled a toothy grin. Moony knew that that would always surprise them, no matter how many times they saw it. "Soooooo.what do want to do first?" Moony said, wondering what adventure they should go on this time.  
"Here, Wormtail," Padfoot said casually, looking put out, "I suppose I'll make it up to you. We won't play a round of Chase the Rat this time." He sighed an exasperated sigh and looked to Moony who was smiling with approval. He had always been the sensible one. Wormtail smiled in a relieved manner and Prongs snorted with laughter.  
"So then.what are we going to do?" Prongs said impatiently, shaking his heavily armed head.  
"Watch it!" Wormtail squeaked, dodging a point that nearly scooped him up. This was always a scary, life-threatening time in his eyes. He squealed and ran to the werewolf, sitting in front of him as if he was being protected.  
Moony chuckled and patted Wormtail on the head with a large paw then shook his own dangerous arsenal of teeth, unnerving the poor rat sitting beneath him. Padfoot let out a bark of laughter then started to look playful. "I know of just the place. C'mon, I'll lead the way."  
James nodded in agreement and scooped up Wormtail into his antlers, despite the many squeaky protests. Moony looked around then finally agreed but said cautiously, "We'd better not be seen by anyone.or else we're all dead."  
"Don't worry, mate." Padfoot said soothingly, leading the troop down the stairs and into the passageway. "I don't think anyone will find us where we're going."  
James snickered and flung his head back, giving Wormtail a scare. He squealed again but knew that he was stuck on this ride of doom and decided that if he stayed still he'd be out of the way of the deadly points on either side of him.  
Moony shook his head and suppressed laughter, since he did seem to be the only one being nice to poor Peter at the moment. He was getting a bit bored though so he trotted in front of James on the way out the passage and started nipping playfully at Padfoot's legs. Sirius growled menacingly in mocking manner but kept on leading the group without hesitation. He stopped at the edge of what seemed to be an endless forest and he looked back at the rest of his friends and smiled, sending a silent message that they had arrived. 


	3. ¤An odd bargain¤

+Chapter 3+  
-An odd bargain-  
  
"You and your high metabolism are starting to annoy me." A tall pale girl said to her friend who was sitting at a table, not looking up from what she was doing.  
The other girl looked up with her big hazelish eyes and arched a brow, dropping her fork with a clatter onto her plate. The Great Hall was literally empty besides the two girls who were sitting at the Ravenclaw table, their house table. "High metabolism or not.I'm starved."  
The tall girl sat down next to her but still didn't look up from something she was doing to her arm. When her long white-blonde hair spilled off from covering what she was doing, the other girl stole a glance. She was carving the initials S. B. into her wrist with a sharp quill, blood oozing and mixing along with the ink.  
"Cassandra, if I ask what you're doing will I still have a normal mental state?" The girl said after swallowing large bite of turkey. She was watching her beautiful friend carve a known player's initials into her arm and it was starting to pain her.  
"Oh hush Kris." said Cassandra dreamily, dabbing up the disgusting mixture from her arm. She was beautiful and knew that it was killing her friend to see her ruining herself. She was a tall, thin young woman with skin as pale as cream with hair that was blindingly blonde. It was almost white but still it gave flashes of gold in the sunlight and her startlingly blue eyes contrasted nicely with her ice princess look. She looked over at Kristina with a sly look on her beautiful soft pink lips. "You care too much, I hope you know."  
Kristina looked away from her friend who looked and acted totally opposite from her. Kris was pretty short but was still rather average weight. She was olive skinned with short, choppy chocolate brown hair that flipped out nicely over her ears and had beautiful, wide hazel eyes to match. She was very much Italian but knew not a word or anything of her native land. She had an eating problem.she spent most of her time in the Great Hall or smuggling things from the kitchen around in her bag. As I said before, she had a high metabolism so she didn't seem to gain a pound. Cassie barely ate at all.and Kris being the caring, motherly person that she was would always try to get her to eat. Cass always teased her about the Sorting Hat's mistake and how it should have put her in Hufflepuff but soon forgot that after being able to use Kris's surprising intellect to her advantage. "There is no such thing as caring too much for a friend." Kris said defiantly, her long lashes shading her eyes from view. She looked so angelic and pretty when she was supposedly sad.not that she wasn't pretty all the time. She just had Cassandra the Beauty Queen to compare to.  
Cassie frowned and looked guiltily over at her friend. She hated hurting her best friends feelings.she just had such a cruel side and Kris was so easy to upset that sometimes it didn't work out that well. "I'm sorry.I just hate it when you sound like my mother."  
An uncharacteristic smirk appeared on Kris's downcast face and she looked up, blinking innocently. "Me, your mother? What an insult." She said, knowing how much she hated her mom. Cassie stomped her foot and laughed, abandoning her artwork for a second to push Kris away playfully.  
"Don't do that to me!" She cried, smacking her friend again. "I look so dumb when I'm worried about you." She snickered a bit as Kris pushed her off the long bench and returned to her food.  
"I'm always worried about you and I got used to it." She said in conniving tones, making sure that her friend couldn't crawl back up and sit next to her by pushing her back to the ground.  
"Therefore you always look dumb," She retorted in mock stubbornness as she retreated to sitting on the floor and carving again.  
"Oh shove it." Kris exclaimed, grabbing her treat-filled bag and standing triumphantly over her friend. "C'mon.everyone is in bed right now. I don't want to miss my beauty sleep." She added, primping herself teasingly.  
Cassandra rose to her feet and brushed her robes off softly then fell into step with Kristina. "I know.you really shouldn't. You need it badly." Cass said ignoring Kristina's eye rolling and indignant snort.  
"If I find a way to bring Sirius to you then will you stop doing that?!" Kris screeched, stopping to shudder and look away from her friend's carving.  
Cass smirked and patted her best friend on the shoulder, "I love it when you relent. It works so nicely."  
Kris stuck her tongue out childishly then muttered, "No wonder your name is Cassandra, Goddess of Evil, you know. Yes, yes.well, what d'you say?"  
Cass tucked the deadly sharp quill into her breast pocket and smirked, "Okay.find him and make him talk to me before lunch tomorrow."  
They arrived and Kristina breathed a sigh of relief as she found that she really was quitting her artwork. "You know.I kept him away from you for good reason."  
"I know.I know.you don't want me to get hurt." Cassandra said impatiently as she pulled her robes over her head and changed into her pajamas.  
"Damn right, I don't." Kristina said harshly, mentally cursing the handsome boy as she crawled under her bedcovers. She knew that she would have to relent one day.but she couldn't imagine where he would be at this hour. Probably sneaking around the castle with his friends or doing God- knows-what with his current toy. She sighed and turned over to look at her friend, who had fallen fast asleep. Then an idea hit her.he was always gone around the full moon.she had seen him sneak into the Forbidden Forest around this time. A scary idea hit her as she crept from her bed to the window sill where she spotted the full moon rising high above the forest. Full moon.Forbidden Forest.it all added up! Sirius was a werewolf! She stifled a scream with her dark hand, her eyes wide with horror. Just about every girl in the school had had a romp with a werewolf and everyone was oblivious to it! Her best friend was infatuated with a man-eating canine and the headmaster was accepting dangerous students into his school. Who in the right mind would do such a thing.and she was supposed to go find him during this.this.time! She whined a bit then decided that she would talk to one of his best friends about it.Remus Lupin. He was always in the library at unholy hours in the morning and they got along pretty well.He was a pretty nice guy. She blinked and nodded, planning it out. First she'd just talk about intelligence since that was something they had in common.then she'd bring up Sirius and how Cass really wanted to talk to him and.well, she had it all planned out. She shuddered again with cold and fear then set her watch to wake her up at the same unholy hour but she was sure her insatiable stomach would wake her up sooner than that. Soon she fell into a fitful sleep on the uncomfortable sill cushion. 


End file.
